Capacity building strategy for emerging farmers launched

The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry this week launched a strategy under its Farmers Support Programme aimed at building capacity for resettled and Affirmative Action Loan Scheme (AALS) farmers in the country.

Launched by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Anna Shiweda, the strategy focuses on how the capacity of farmers with regard to technical and management skills can be improved in order to ensure commercial sustainable production.

The formulation of the strategy was triggered by government’s realisation that these farmers were not yielding the desired outcomes, thus the strategy is expected to address some of the challenges experienced by these farmers during their transition from a communal to a commercial set-up.

Improved results from all stakeholders are expected to be achieved over a five-year period between 2017 and 2022.

Some of the strategic interventions outlined in the capacity building strategy document are stakeholder coordination platforms established in line with existing coordination platforms, the identification of incentives to support resettlement and AALS farmers, development of systematic farm visits and the delivery of capacity building courses before and after resettlement.

The Farmer’s Support Programme is a government project, through the Ministry of Agriculture with financial and technical support provided by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and was co-funded by the Agricultural Bank of Namibia.

The support programme mainly aims to transfer skills and knowledge to enhance farm productivity which is essential for food security and poverty alleviation.